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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS January 18 18,, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Eye on Olympia
Carving out a history
Budget is focal point in capital Lawmakers eye Inslee’s addition BY CHRIS MCDANIEL PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
MATTHEW NASH/OLYMPIC
PENINSULA NEWS GROUP
Master Carver Dale Faulstich sits with handcrafted masks in his living room shortly before his retirement from full-time carving. For 20-plus years, he’s researched regional styles to create much of the art for the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe.
Jamestown S’Klallam’s master artist retires and more in an official capacity for “The Strong People.” Faulstich retired Jan. 8 from his 50to 60-hour weekly routine to pursue other artistic passions, with plans to do some occasional work with the tribe. “I spent my entire adult life doing art for the sake of money,” he said. BY MATTHEW NASH “Now I’m going to do art for the sake OLYMPIC PENINSULA NEWS GROUP of fun. It feels wonderful. I have no idea what I’m going to make.” SEQUIM — For 20-plus years, Dale The iconic art Faulstich has made Faulstich, 65, has put a face, or faces, to the stories of the Jamestown S’Klallam remains everyday fixtures for those driving through Blyn, Sequim and Dungeness. tribe. He’s designed and helped carve more The soft-spoken, non-native artist than 60 totem poles including the 10 from Missouri has served as the tribe’s master carver since 1994, designing and poles in and around 7 Cedars Casino with helping create totem poles, masks, signs its center pole at the entrance his first
Dale Faulstich was man behind more than 60 totem poles
project in his full-time role for the tribe. “I thought it was going to be a temporary contract, maybe take six months, but 22 years later here I am,” he said. His designs continue to welcome visitors and/or share the tribe’s history following different styles from the Oregon/ Washington coastline to Southeast Alaska. Tribal Chairman W. Ron Allen said in Faulstich’s book, Totem Poles of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, that the poles “remind our citizens of their history and heritage and to create a memorable experience for our visitors and guests. TURN
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OLYMPIA — As state lawmakers begin the second week of the session today, North Olympic Peninsula legislators are focusing on the goals of the governor’s 2016 supplemental budget. The supplemental budget calls for adjustments to the $38 billion biennial operating budget approved last year. In his State of the State address last week, Gov. Jay Inslee “set up what he thinks the priorities are for the budget and for the session,” State Rep. Steve TharTharinger inger, D-Sequim, said Friday. “They kind of align with most of what the Legislature is thinking about.” Tharinger — along with Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam — represents the 24th District, which covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County. Along with public education funding, a major component of the supplemental budget concerns mental health care. The supplemental budget provides more than $137 million — including $44 million through the state’s general fund — to provide better treatment for mental health patients. All told, the budget funds about 62 additional medical staff positions — including 51 registered nurses — and makes investments to improve staff recruitment and retention rates at state psychiatric hospitals. TURN
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Clallam’s syringe program faces hurdles Funding, perception among issues BY CHRIS MCDANIEL PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Securing funding, providing adequate treatment through partner agencies, changing public perception and purchasing an adequate supply of naloxone remain obstacles the Clallam County Health and Human Services Syringe Service Program is working to overcome. “Funding is huge,” said Christina Hurst, public health programs manager for Clallam County Health and Human Services. Hurst, speaking to about 28 people at a Jan. 12 meeting of the Port Angeles Business Associa-
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tion, said the program has been scrambling for funding sources ever since the state Department of Health, after 11 years, discontinued funding. The Department of Health discontinued funding syringe programs to non-metropolitan areas Dec. 31, 2011, Hurst said. “Syringe programs are a victim of their own success due to funds being tied to HIV cases,” she said. “Funding has now moved towards [pre-exposure prophylaxis] and medication as prevention to reduce viral load for new infections.”
Pre-exposure prophylaxis is when people at very high risk for HIV take HIV medicines daily to lower their chances of getting infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control. “When we had funding from the Washington State Department of Health, we were doing awesome,” Hurst said. “We had all the supplies we needed. We had everything we needed.”
Limited treatment options “We have a shortage of drug treatment in our community,” Hurst said. “We need a lot more drug treatment.” When addicts seek treatment, “they should have a bed waiting
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“Suboxone is looking to have better results than methadone and people don’t need to be on it as long.” CHRISTINA HURST public health programs manager, Clallam County Health and Human Services for them at that moment,” she said. “That is how we are going to make a dent in this epidemic.” There also is a need for better access to medication-assisted treatment, Hurst said, “meaning we need to begin using drugs like Suboxone to help people taper down and withdraw off of heroin.” Suboxone, which contains buprenorphine as well as the opioid antagonist naloxone, is a prescription medicine indicated for
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treatment of opioid dependence in tandem with counseling and psychosocial support. “Suboxone is looking to have better results than methadone and people don’t need to be on it as long,” Hurst said. “One of our big issues is public perception,” Hurst said. “This is always going to be a debatable program. People are not going to like it. People tell me I am enabling addicts.”
CLASSIFIED COMICS COMMENTARY DEAR ABBY DEATHS HOROSCOPE NATION PENINSULA POLL PUZZLES/GAMES
B5 B4 A7 B4 A6 B4 A3 A2 B6
*PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT
SPORTS SUDOKU WEATHER WORLD
B1 A2 A8 A3